They say there is no English-language equivalent for
the German expression, “Heimat,” or perhaps better-stated, German “experience”
of Heimat. It is at once home — to
some, “The Fatherland” — and culture … and all that goes with it; the zeitgeist
of all-things German.
It is important to understand that with the news
from Icarus Films this past week that documentary filmmaker Thomas Heise’s
latest award-winning film, Heimat is a Space in Time,
will be making it domestic DVD debut on Apr. 14.
Born in East Berlin during the Cold War, Heise
learned his craft while serving as an assistant director at East Germany’s DEFA
Film Studios during the 1970s … all of his early works were eventually banned
by the East German government. With
reunification of German in 1990, Heise was now free to make films about Germany
and the German experience.
By 1993 his films were gaining recognition — the German
Film Critics Association awarded him Best Documentary for Stau:
Jetzt Geht’s Los (translates more or less as Traffic
Jam – Now It Starts) — and he has been making films
ever since.
His latest, Heimat is
a Space in Time, opened at the Berlin
International Film Festival in February of last year and then proceeded to work
the festival circuit through 2019, arriving at the New York Film Festival in
October. These screenings are all very
prestigious and certainly generate both media reviews and a fair share of
awards, but unless you happen to be able to catch one of these festival
showcase exhibitions you are out of luck in seeing his work ... and others like
it.
Fortunately, Icarus Films comes to the rescue each
month with DVD releases that brings films to the domestic home entertainment
packaged media marketplace from all around the world.
In Heise’s Heimat is
a Space in Time, he tracks four generations of
his family, going back 100 years to World War I. The rise of Nazi Germany, the death camps,
World War II, a divided Germany and arriving at the present. It is a powerful, near epic presentation …
which reminds us that forgetting the past, can doom future generations to
repeat the same mistakes.
Indeed, there is one point in the film, where Heise
simply reads letters aloud from German Jews, while the names of Concentration
Camp victims scroll on the screen. The
written letters, move from concern to desperation … to a sad resolve of a fate
that awaits, while all the while the names of the murdered continue.
Heimat is a Space in Time is
presented in German with English subtitles.
Included with the DVD are a booklet with an essay
and a Q&A with Thomas Heise.
No comments:
Post a Comment